Goodbye John

[Alan Cun]

Hello All,

I could not believe it today on reading my LDMC Mag and notice that John Withers had passed away. I cant remember where I met John but think it was around 1975 or so. John was serving in the RAAF at Sale in Victoria and it was probably at the Bendigo or Canberra swap that we started a friendship that has continued all these years swapping information literature and parts. I remember joking with him just months ago about parting with his much loved OB. He explained that he put it into, I think, a museum auction with a silly reserve only for it to go for approximately 4 times the reserve. That was the John I knew and I will sure treasure the manuals produced by him. Good bye old mate many Doug owners are going to miss you.

Alan Cun

[graeme]

This is indeed very sad news. My dad was in regular contact with John while we were doing up the OB, and like you say Alan, he was so generous with any information or parts he could spare. I think the service he provided in printing anything Douglas related that he could get his hands on was incredible - he surely never made a bean from what he did to help us all in getting information. I last spoke to him a few months ago and he sounded in good health and with lots more plans to keep printing any new Douglas material that came his way. He will most certainly be greatly missed by the Douglas fraternity.

Graeme

[Ian]

I read in the LDMC mag as well. John was the first person I talked Douglases with when I found the OC - and he has always been very helpful. I still remember that first phone call - he asked what sort of Douglas I had found and when I told him it was an OC (which  I knew nothing about) he warned me not to tell him where it was as he would get it before me - a good sense of humour. He will be missed.